what is yOur opinion on grace blackthorn? 🎤
Like your answer, I hated the way Cassandra Clare handled her character... as I is my opinion for most of her newer characters, but that's a topic for another day.
I never liked Grace from the start, like from a cursory read. In the first book, she was presented as a minion essentially, and I'm always deeply unsettled by invoulentary emotions, so James' manipulation never sat right with me. She was, to me, a Sebastian-in-city-of-glass-esque character; evil in her manipulation, but a character that was meant to be disliked and became interesting because of it.
I think Grace did have the potential to become a real villain, but the way CC wrote her-- an adopted daughter with absolutely no choice in her decisions, always defined by what was being done to her or what she lost-- infuriates me. As much as I didn't like her, she was written in all the wrong paths for her character.
If CC wanted to continue her "overwhelming love for her brother who she wanted back" storyline, I think Grace would have stuck with Tatania. I think her autonomy should have been defined by commiting to a darker path to get what she wanted. But I really wished she had literally any other motivation (Tatania's wealth, her power, necromancy, dark magic). I think Grace could have easily stayed a villain while having autonomy in defying her mother or by hurting TLH main cast to reach her goals. I would have been very intrigued to see her as the crazed necromantic maniac instead of Tatania (maybe who she killed?).
Instead, CC made her defined by Christopher and her mother. She was reduced to her relationships of which she had no autonomy. Frankly, the entire Christopher plotline drives me absolutely insane because 1) we did not need any more romantic plotlines in that series. Almost every platonic relationship was sidelined in favor of romantic drama, and having a romance between Kit and Grace was revolting and made little to no sense. 2) the entire thing was very rushed, mostly being in the last book with literally so many other things going on. It felt forced, and I blame that on CC. 3) GRACES FUCKING AUTONOMY! What do you MEAN Kit CAME BACK AS A FUCKING GHOST FOR LITERALLY ONLY ONE FUCKING REASON? If Kit came back as a ghost, it would have been for Thomas or literally anyone else. Graces arc should not have concluded by finishing Kit's work-- a woman's entire story by completing the legacy of a man? What the fuck? She didn't even get the grace of doing it on her own, she had to have his ghost come back, that's bullshit.
Grace should have been a villain. CC should not have given her a redemption arc, especially considering what she'd done to James was already a horrific action. CC could have used that in place dislike of her to turn her into a real villain with her own autonomy. Instead, she got narrowed down and sidelined.
I still think Grace is a complicated character, especially in the first two books, but I think she had so much potential that CC couldn't handle. As in TDA, TLH suffers from too much going on at one time that you simply cannot round out every arc, and that is CC's own hubris ruining it. Grace got flattened in Icarus' fall, and it just isn't fair to her or to the readers who were paying attention to her.
sorry I despise grace and that has me thinking a lot about her, anyway thanks for the ask!
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